Chasing Memories
by kusudama.ball
Summary: Dawn's new detective partner, Ash Ketchum, is not all that he appears to be. "When people sneak around at two in the morning, something is definitely up." Dawn, Pokeshipping
1. Dawn

Disclaimer: Kusudama does not anything, Pokemon or otherwise.

* * *

Dawn shut the top of her laptop, leaving her desk lamp to flicker a bit of light into the darkness alone. The light shone on all the items she had scattered on her desk: a pile of folders labeled in her neat print, her detective badge, a pencil holder filled with Piplup pens, and a box of chocolates. Dawn, passing her eyes over the chocolates, smiled and grabbed a white chocolate truffle that she plopped into her mouth. She chewed slowly, thinking over the events of the day.

She had come in that morning at eight, as usual, and headed to the conference room. On an average day she would be briefed on her assignment, or she would get keep working on an old assignment, but, _oh no_, not today. Today her boss, Brock, had stopped her outside the conference room and led her to one of the more private rooms to tell her that her partner, Kenny, had resigned.

She and Kenny had a history that went way back, all the way back to their sandbox days when the two went to school together. In fact, Kenny and Dawn had been friends throughout their elementary school life—and their middle school, high school, and college careers. So when the two had joined the same firm, it was only logical that the two were partnered together. Unsurprisingly, the two worked great together, and had one of the highest success rates in the whole firm.

But now Kenny was gone, Dawn mused, glancing over an old casual company picture. She and Kenny were standing next to each other, holding up two fingers behind each others heads. The most complicating aspect of his resignation for her, however, was going to be finding her new partner.

Dawn's eyes moved over the glassy picture to Paul, who worked in the office across from hers. She secretly hoped Paul would be her new partner; after all, Dawn giggled girlishly, a blush tinting her cheeks, Paul was the best-looking guy in the whole place. Knowing Brock though, he wouldn't allow it.

Dawn sighed; she was probably going to end up with some beginner fresh out school that had no experience whatsoever and a superiority complex to boot. Or some partnerships could be mixed up and she would end up with someone already working at the firm; maybe May?

Nah, her partnership with Drew was too successful to be jeopardized. Zoey didn't even need a partner to get things done, just like Paul, so she was out. And Harley….

Dawn shivered. Anyone but Harley, who annually went streaking through the company building as a 'special Christmas tradition'. Dawn had no idea why he hadn't been fired, but she was suspicious it had something to do with Brock's wacky sense of humor.

But it was no use thinking about it, Dawn groaned, grabbing her laptop case from under her desk. Either way, whoever Brock gave her, she probably wouldn't do nearly as good as when she was with Kenny.

Dawn slipped her laptop into its bag. She would find out who her new partner was tomorrow, so she would just have to wait. A few more items went into her bag, and with a last piece of chocolate, Dawn had packed up and swung out the door.

* * *

When Dawn walked in the next morning, Brock was leaning against the secretary counter and chatting up one of the Officer Jenny's that frequently passed by. Jenny's Growlithe soon spotted her and nuzzled against Dawn leg, its orange fur ticking her skin. The two of them had worked together before, usually when Dawn had some tracking to be done. She patted Growlithe lightly on the head before it scampered back to Jenny's side, alerting both her and Brock of Dawn's presence. Jenny waved politely; Brock excused himself to come over.

"Hey, Dawn, I need to talk to you."

Brock had dropped his flirty face. Dawn wasn't sure whether or not that was a bad sign.

"I found you a new partner. He should be getting here in a few moments."

Oh. That was bad.

"I expect you to make him feel welcome." Brock let himself smirk. "But if he's being a jerk, that's okay, just smack him really hard and I'll look away."

Brock was joking, and that made Dawn feel a little bit better. She laughed, adjusting to the idea.

"Will do, Brock!" She chimed, winking at her boss. He smiled back, before his attention was distracted by someone walking into the room. Dawn stopped herself before she turned around—after all, it was probably her new partner. She could feel him coming closer, his shoes pounding on the tiled floor, and something small—a Pokemon?—scampering next to him.

"What's up, Brocko?"

Dawn whirled around, eager to find the source the voice. When she saw him, she did a double take.

Wow.

He was half a foot taller than her, wearing jeans, a white undershirt, and a black and yellow jacket. His jet black hair stuck out at odd angles around his head, barely contained by a red and black hat. A Pikachu grinned at her from its perch on his shoulders. He grinned an identical grin at her.

"Hey, here comes the man of the hour! Ash, meet Dawn; Dawn, you're new partner, Ash."

Ash stretched out a gloved hand. Dawn looked at it uncertainly, but then put forth her own hand. At once, Pikachu ran down his arm, up hers, and raced around her neck until it was on top of her head. Ash burst into laughter.

"That always gets them, doesn't it, Pikachu?" He chuckled, giving Pikachu a high-five. Brock shook his head. "Don't you think that's getting old?"

"And why would it?"

"Because that's the billionth time I've seen it, you idiot! It's not even funny!"

Ash winked at her. Dawn wasn't really sure what to do—besides for Harley, who was a complete head case, seriousness was the policy of the day for everyone else at the company. Brock caught her uneasy mood.

"Don't worry, Dawn, Ash isn't normally like this. He's just happy to finally be on the job."

Ash nodded, and then switched to a different topic. "Hey, Dawn, do you have any Pokemon?"

Dawn's hand immediately fingered the Pokeball chain she had around her neck. She smiled happily. "Yeah, I have one. My Empoleon; he's the cutest thing ever! I've got him as a Piplup for my tenth birthday, and the two of us grew up together. We battled a little bit when we were kids, but I stopped battling after I got into middle school."

Ash nodded. "Yeah, middle school is usually the cut off time for most child battlers. Pikachu and I did the same thing, mostly when my mother banned me from it." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "But I think I still battled for a few years afterwards. My mom threw a fit when she found out."

Brock gave Ash a look. "Hate to say I told you so, but back then, I told you so." Brock glanced back at Dawn, and ignored an immature raspberry Ash blew in his direction. "Oh, and Dawn? Sorry to say this on such short notice, but I think you should just take some time to do a bit of tidying up today. Ash and I have some stuff to talk about."

Dawn looked between the two. Ash had his hands behind his neck, a clear 'whatever' reading across his face. Brock stared at Ash intently, until Ash seemed to finally relent and drop his hands. The two walked away; Pikachu waved behind it at her, and Brock glancing behind to give her a nod. They disappeared as they turned into the hallway that led to Brock's office, leaving Dawn standing alone in the front room.

* * *

Dawn didn't have much of an idea what she planned on doing with her day without a direct assignment, but decided to just goof around inside her office. There wasn't much to do but sit around, eat chocolate, and surf the internet, but Dawn managed to make do. She even felt pretty good about not skipping work and going shopping, a strong temptation for her whatever she did.

She should probably do something productive, though. Dawn scratched her head for something she could do while twirling around in her swivel chair. She could try figuring out more about her partner—yeah, Dawn though, snapping her fingers, she probably was onto something.

She opened her laptop and plugged the cord into the power outlet, before settling into her chair. It twisted and turned as she waited for her computer to load. The black and white characters flashed across her screen; Dawn eyed them impatiently. Eventually her laptop was ready for use, and Dawn immediately clicked directly into the file book.

The file book was a collection of data gathered by the government for crime-solving purposes and contained information on all the government's citizens: birthdays, relatives, lifestyle habits, and especially past criminal activities.

Dawn clicked onto the search page of the database. She searched her memory briefly for the name, and eventually typed in 'Ash Ketchum'. Dawn tapped the enter key quickly; the computer hummed in exertion.

Dawn waited for a few minutes. The computer kept humming, a continuous dull roar that seemed to persist on and on. It kept going and going and in return, Dawn felt herself growing more and more worried. The file book was notoriously slow; however, Dawn was pretty confident the file book wasn't that slow. Her laptop droned on, but Dawn was already caught up in all the possibilities.

It was extremely unusual for files to go missing in the file book. Dawn had never seen an incident like this—in all of her years as working as a detective, the file book had been the slow but reliable tool she and her colleagues turned to when they needed a source of information.

The next moment, her computer stopped humming. 'No search results found' was written clearly and boldly across the screen, confirming the biggest of the worries prying at Dawn's mind.

If Ash Ketchum didn't have a file, it meant something was up. And if something was up, it meant Dawn was going to be on the case.

* * *

Whew. I think I lack any stamina when it comes to writing. Anyway, this was my first piece of writing, and I think I did okay. -shrug- First fic, yay!  
Just a note, for anybody who may be worried, this is not a Pearlshipping fic. This is pure Pokeshipping, Dawn just happens to play an important role.


	2. Ash

Disclaimer - No own, no sue.

* * *

Dawn twisted and turned underneath her aqua-blue, Piplup-print sheets. The mysterious circumstances around Ash's appearance had been gnawing at her head for hours; a brief glance at her digital clock informed Dawn that it was already one in the morning. The blaring red lights of her clock burned into her eyes, an irritating reminder of the problems preying on Dawn's conscious. The biggest one, at the moment, was her inability to fall asleep. She tried to reproduce the sleepy languor she felt at every _other_ point in her life, right down to drooping her eyelids and relaxing all of her muscles—but it was no use.

Dawn tried everything else, too: counting Mareep, singing a soothing lullaby she heard on the radio, rubbing her Empoleon's Pokeball, but still, nothing worked

"If I become an insomniac, I swear, I'm going to hunt down that Ketchum and tear his throat out before I feed it to dad's Feraligatr." Dawn hissed, burying her head into her pillow. She could almost feel her clock's red lights blare through her eyelids and shine directly into her brain.

If she couldn't fall asleep, she might as well try and do something productive. Shopping was out, as the mall was closed; calling Zoey was out, since Dawn didn't feel like waking up next week with barf-green hair; and anything remotely noisy would have her landlord on her like Beedrill on honey. She might as well go to work and clock out early for some mall time.

Dawn slowly pulled herself out of bed. The cold air hit her skin like a thousand tiny needles, but Dawn ignored it. She pulled on her clothes slowly, trying to work a bit of thought into her head.

Why didn't Ash have a file? He seemed perfectly legitimate—he had to be, or else he wouldn't have been licensed to have his Pikachu. His Pikachu could have been one of those Pokemon bought on the black-market, though. However, Dawn was reluctant to believe that Ash bought his Pikachu illegally. The two of them exhibited a bond Dawn couldn't attribute to being bought; still, that didn't explain how Ash couldn't have a file _and_ still have a Pikachu.

But then this brought up another question: Why didn't Brock notice? Dawn remembered when she was first hired Brock knew everything about her—her family, her grades, her preferences, even her past boyfriends. If Brock had hired Ash, it meant Brock knew just as much about Ash; unfortunately, it implicated Brock in any crimes Ash may commit.

Dawn yanked a comb through her hair hard in frustration. She loved Brock like a brother, but she trusted Ash as much as she would trust a rampaging Tauros.

Dawn rubbed her pokeball chain slowly. The cool metal felt good on her bare hands, and Dawn could nearly feel her Empoleon relaxing underneath her strokes. She slipped on the sneakers she placed on the floor where carpet changed to glossy wooden planks—and soon her rubber soles quietly tapped against the floor as she walked out the door.

* * *

Her car gently rolled to a stop in front of the detective building. Her car's silver coat gleamed like a miniature sun underneath the street lights—Dawn mentally made a note to repaint her car so it wouldn't be a dead giveaway when she tried a few stealth missions. She manually locked her car and walked away, keeping one eye out for any unsavory types lurking around the building. A nighttime walk from the parking lot to the building always scared her; after countless cases that bagged countless criminals and sent them to jail, Dawn felt paranoid about someone attacking her in revenge.

She sighed in relief when she walked through the arching double doors of the detective building. Dawn even felt especially fortunate when a bucket of water or ketchup didn't fall on her head; apparently, Harley hadn't done his early morning rounds and set up his various traps.

Feeling comfortable and safe in her surroundings, Dawn relaxed and began the stroll to her office. Her shoes tapped on the tiled floors in a muted rhythm, echoing across the empty hallways and reverberating back into her sneakers. The pulsing song of her walk began to feel like music to Dawn, she could envision her Empoleon smiling too.

Dawn turned the corner that led to her office, still listening to the sound of her sneakers. She ambled through the halls, accompanied only by the movement of the shadows against the walls. Her shadow circled around her as they walked past dim lights hanging from the ceiling; Dawn, however, had a mind only for the music she was hearing.

The nirvana-like atmosphere Dawn had created around herself made her feel safe and happy—she was in her element, comfortable in the hallways she had worked in for years. Dawn's hand reached for her doorbell, still caught up in her euphoria—

—but then Dawn heard the rustle. It was the soft skimming noise of paper on paper, and the soft inhale and exhale of someone breathing. It came from behind her glossy brown door, erasing all the euphoria Dawn had been experiencing before. There was a wispy scampering movement and a soft scrap of a chair on a floor and then….a silence.

And then, Dawn ran.

She ran far and far away from her door, the once-steady rhythm of her shoes now a frantic pounding. Her Empoleon's pokeball bounced against her shirt, each bounce sending an electric spark through her body and into her mind. She kept running and running, desperation seeping into her mind; the shadows she felt so familiar with now glaring at her in a thousand different black and gray colors.

Dawn didn't glance behind her; she didn't even seem to glance in front of her, paranoia making her eyes grow wide and large but unseeing. Soon, the adrenaline bubble burst and Dawn collapsed against the wall, curling her knees up to her chest a fetal position. Her breathe felt heavy and tiring in her lungs and the cold wall pressed against her back and her hair weaved in spirals around her face and then—

—and then she fainted.

* * *

A warm hand shook Dawn awake. Her eyes fluttered open unsteadily at first, but then instantly shot open once she had recollected herself.

"Where—what—who are you?"

Dawn took stock of her surroundings. She was two hallways away from her office, lying on the floor with her back pressed against the wall. She saw the hand on her shoulder next, and immediately followed the arm it was attached to. She saw the shoulder next, then a tanned neck, and then…

The brown-gold eyes of Ash Ketchum

"What are you doing?" Dawn spat out, drawing away from his hand. She could feel the mistrust flash in her eyes; in return, he looked away like a wounded Pokemon.

"I found you asleep on the floor; are you okay?" Ash said, any negative feelings he might have felt towards her overshadowed by a bright smile he suddenly flashed her way. Pikachu chirped at her too from on top of Ash's head, in a way that suggested Pikachu was asking her the same question. A stream of light filtered through the window on top of her head; Dawn guess it was around five in the morning.

"Thanks." Dawn said uncertainly, but slightly more comfortable now that the hallways were lit up with sunlight. "Is anyone else here?"

Ash shook his head. "I don't think so. It's a bit too early for most people to even consider waking up." Ash chuckled lightly, and Pikachu giggled a little too. Despite her reservations, Dawn felt a few of her face muscles loosen and curve her mouth into a smile.

"Yeah, I guess it's a little too early for anyone to be up." Dawn cocked her head to the side. "But then why are you up?"

Ash stood up from his kneeling position and offered her a hand. "I could ask you the same question." Ash said, casting her a mock-suspicious look. "As for us, me and Pikachu probably aren't as normal as we would like to think. Besides, it's the first real day we're on the job."

Dawn took the hand and he helped hoist her up. She glanced around again—nope, it didn't seem like even Paul, the early-bird of the company, was there. There was a slight pause as Dawn contemplated her options, but firmly decided it was time to make her getaway.

"Well, Ash, thanks for waking me up. I wouldn't like to have been at work and still overslept!" Dawn said, waving her hand in a goodbye as she walked away. Ash looked a little surprised at her sudden farewell, but he shrugged it off and called a goodbye to her anyway. Dawn turned the corner back to her office quickly, and then dropped a smile she had plastered on her face and consumed her mind with thought.

Whatever happened, Dawn was certain someone had been in her office last night, so her first order of business was to find out what had been taken. Next, she had to find out who was rummaging through her stuff. She actually thought it was fairly obvious who it was—the only person in the entire company that didn't have a file in the file book, was in the building early enough to wake her up, and had a small Pokemon that had the movement patterns that matched what she had heard before. Dawn almost felt bad that all the evidence implicated Ash—from what she had seen of him, he was a very nice person. However, her detective instincts and her suspicious nature were working overtime, buzzing with the possibilities of what Ash would have wanted in her office. There was no room in her heart for criminals, even one's like Ash.

* * *

Dawn opened the door to her office with one hand on her necklace, ready to pull out her Empoleon for anything that could await her inside. After a short search of anything that could explode or beep didn't come up with a single bomb or other trap, Dawn felt it was finally safe to look around. She checked her chocolate box first; surprisingly, all of her chocolates were still there. Her laptop lay untouched in the middle of her desk, even the pens in her pencil holder were still arranged in the special order she kept them in.

Next, Dawn checked her file cabinet. The first drawer, the one that contained all of the cases she had dealing with drugs and drug-dealers was intact.

The second drawer, containing all of her information on kidnappings and ransoms, caught her attention. The remains of a fingerprint were smeared on the glossy wooden surface of the drawer handle. Unfortunately, it was too small and smeared to be analyzed, but it clued Dawn in on what to look for. Mentally, she made a list off all the cases she had previously done: first, there was Ritchie at Indigo's file; then, there was Duplica at her mansion's file; third, there was Todd Snap at Snowpoint Mountain; fourth, there was Misty of Cerulean…

Dawn gasped. She looked through the rest of her files at lightning speed, the papers rustling and bending underneath her whip-like touch. She reached the end of the cabinet with a look of apprehension on her face. She had never recalled taking out Misty's folder; she couldn't even remember the last time she had bothered thinking about the case. Nobody at the firm would have taking it without her permission either, so it only left one option. What would Ash Ketchum have wanted with a file on Misty Waterflower's disappearance?

Dawn groaned. Everything had just started to add up for her, like a puzzle where she had just put together the borders and just needed to close up the middle.

But now, with Misty's file missing and a thousand new possibilities opening up, it looked like the real puzzle had just begun.

* * *

So there you have it, Misty finally decided to show up.  
By the way, I'd like to thank you for the reviews I've been getting. Being a beginner, I didn't expect to get _any_. I finally get why people love reviews so much--they make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  
heynello - I never thought that much about ages, but I'd place them in their late twenties, early thirties. They're definitely not their anime ages, though.


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